WARNING This post contains information about bowl movements. Id say its a lot of TMI but for the value of our health it is necessary to understand the condition that lead me to study the gut and just how important our poop is to our health!
It is SO true we take our health for granted and once something is off balance we realize how important it is! Back in July I picked up a bacterial infection in my gut after swimming in a lake. Ive always had a gut of steel! I mean I could eat anything without getting gastro distress of any kind! So when I started having only diarrhea poops I knew something was wrong. Of course the first thought was maybe its because of my diet or a supplement I was taking. So after elimination of a few things and still having major issues, my Coach helped me put 2 and 2 together and I realized it had to have been from the lake. The Lake was closed for high levels of bacteria the week before and the week after my race so it seems logical that that is where I picked it up. Fact is non treated bodies of water contain bacteria and parasites to some degree. Those bacteria levels can raise quickly with rain from run off flowing into the lake and it happened to be a very rainy July for that area. My Coach had me drink nothing but electrolytes throughout the day from then on, which I think was a life saver. I opted for an organic brand of electrolytes similar to pedialyte but with out the artificial sweeteners or dyes.
I finally got in with the Dr after having diarrhea for 2 months, just 2 weeks before my final race of the season Augusta 70.3. Dr gave a complete and thorough panel of tests including blood and stool to check electrolytes, white blood cells and parasites to try to get to the bottom of the issue and also sent me to a specialist. The following week I saw the nurse practitioner at the gastroenterologist. While we were still waiting on my test results to come in, the Nurse prescribed a "Travelers Diarrhea" antibiotic (thankfully she had samples of because she said it was $4000 😳) that hopefully wouldn't mess with my body too much considering it was race week! I finished the antibiotic Friday night before the Sunday race! I do think the antibiotics helped a little bit but I certainly wasn't curled. THANKFULLY, while I was working out I didn't have a problem needing to run to the bathroom. Dr explained that while exercising the blood flow was directed away from the colon which might have been why I wasn't having to interrupt my workouts too much. However, at this point I had no appetite. Everything hurt my stomach except bananas, toast and some soup. In fact my stomach hurt constantly. I wasn't getting in many calories and who knows what I was digesting. My race goals changed from trying to PR my 70.3 distance, to just not pooping myself during the race. 😂 My Dr said hopefully the antibiotics will help enough that you can get through the race but said there was a chance I may have a come to Jesus moment when I stop. This was definitely in my head on race day. Race morning my stomach was a complete disaster! I was sweating in line for the port-o-potty not knowing if I was going to make it into the potty multiple times before the race. I couldn't stay off the toilet. Going about 6 times before the race! Race wasn't my day and my body didnt feel 100%. I had mechanical issues on the bike as well. I really wanted to stop and walk on the run but I remembered what the Dr said about the come to Jesus so I kept moving. 😂 I was able to finish the race with my number 1 goal of not pooping my pants! 🙌
The day after the race I was still feeling "Shitty" so I called the Dr. and She prescribed another round of SUPER heavy antibiotics that kills parasites as well as any other stubborn bacterias I could possibly have. So glad I didn't take this antibiotic before my race because it was pretty hard on my body. I felt extreme brain fog, fatigue and felt like my intestines were melting from the inside out. Not pleasant! I basically killed/destroyed EVERY last thing in my gut. A couple days after I finished my treatment I didn't poop at all! I was pretty encouraged as it was a huge change from going 5-9 times a day. My stomach still hurt constantly but I figured it would take time to heal. By the end of the week I wound up in an endless cycle of 3 days of constipation followed a day of Diarrhea. My stomach was Bloated and constantly in pain. I woke up every morning with a huge gas bubble in my stomach making me look about 4 months pregnant! (Gas baby pictured below) After finishing my 2nd round of antibiotics I went to Whole Foods and got the BEST probiotic I could find. "Gut Restore" at $70 a bottle. (Pictured below, also pictured a new probiotic I will start taking next week)
One of my Personal Training clients turned me on to a book called "Fiber Fueled" by award-winning gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz. I was very intrigued and started reading it while on a week long trip with my Mom. I tried to eat somewhat good on our trip. I did have a few "Episodes" of diarrhea and definitely some constipation with constant stomach pain and bloat. Getting into the book a bit my eyes were opened to just how important a wide variety of plants can fuel our microbiome to help us digest our foods. I also began to learn how important our gut health is for our overall well-being in so many ways (more on this later). Although I wasn't finished reading the book, I decided to try to help restore my gut health by eating a vegan diet consisting of all veggies and fruit, grains of many varieties and legumes. The crazy thing was the thought of a vegetable sounded absolutely disgusting as I had basically lived on nothing but toast and bananas for 3 months! Despite my appetite I went all in all things plants as organic as possible and as many varieties as possible. I would stay the course no matter how my stomach felt to give it time to restore my good gut bacteria know as the microbiome. Luckily my stomach didn't hurt worse but it didn't feel better right away either.
Went back to the Gastroenterologist for a follow up. I was 4 days into my new Diet and still cycling 3 days constipation with 1 day diarrhea. Stomach still hurt constantly and was super bloated gas pain.
Dr and I decided to do a FULL test for parasites, (she was pretty certain we killed whatever was in there with the antibiotics) because although the first test came back negative before my treatments the test requires 3 stool samples over 5 days to 100% rule out Giardia or other parasites. This is SUPER important because I hadn't been swimming in a public pool until I knew for 100% certain I didn't have it. Giardia is highly contagious through feces so much so that even 10 microbes on my booty could contaminate the whole pool. Chlorine doesn't kill it so I wasn't going to take any chances with this. Dr also scheduled a colonoscopy to rule out an infection or inflammation of my colon. This is scheduled for the end of this month (Nov).
Im now 12 days into my 100% plant based no (Well VREY little) processed foods. After 8 days my bowels were completely regulated having normal poops 1-2 times a day. My stomach still has bloated gas pain most of the time but Ive had a few periods where my stomach didn't hurt at all! Just the fact that in less than 2 weeks Im regulated after 3 months of nothing but gut trauma is super encouraging!
In "Fiber Fueled" Dr Bulsiewicz uses an analogy of our gut being like a complex ecosystem like the amazon rain forest. If we take ants out of the rain forest the entire ecosystem changes. Much like our guts, if we take out a food group such a grains we are no longer feeding the good bacteria that feed on that and in return we loose some of the varieties of good bacterias we need to keep our microbiome healthy! Hearing this made a lot of sense especially because of my own experiences with elimination diets. In the past I did a round of W30 diet which eliminates grains and legumes (along with other things) for 30 days. After the 30 days you reintroduce foods one at a time to see how they effect you. The first thing I reintroduced was lentils. I LOVE lentils and have never had a problem with them but this time, after not having legumes at all for 30 days, the small amount of lentils I ate had me keeled over in pain for 2 days. So.... am I truly sensitive to lentils or did I just kill all the good bacteria in my stomach that digest lentils by eliminating legumes?!?! Very interesting stuff here! This is why I decided to get in as many plants as possible to feed the super probiotics I am also taking which will hopefully rebuild my microbiome and heal my gut! In spired by my amazing coach, I have been counting how many varieties of plants I intake each day and some days I have hit over 50 different varieties! 😃
So What am I eating and how am I getting in SO many plants each day?! Stay tuned for future Blogs to follow my journey of going ALL IN VEGAN!
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